Environmental Anthropology

In the 21st century, what we call "environment", "ecology", "wilderness" or "nature" in the Euro-Atlantic world consists of complex and fraught assemblages of social and material connections that have a history. While the meaning of these terms may appear static or straightforward, the significance, value, and even materiality of what falls under the designation of "environment" is under constant socio-political and scientific negotiation. Nothing makes this more evident than today's ongoing political battles over climate change, resource-use, contamination, and conservation. To situate the terms that describe the more-than-human world around us, this course examines both the historical construction of the terms in the title, as well as other configurations of human-nonhuman relations of other societies and cultures. Doing so will trouble our assumed separation between "nature" and "culture" and challenge us to think through present-day environmental politics in new and different ways. As a survey-type course, we will read a variety of socio-cultural anthropology texts, including classic studies and recent publications. The middle portion of this class will pay particular attention to Anthropogenic Climate Change aka Global Warming as our central case study to think with. Additional texts will examine other environmental controversies and you will have the opportunity to explore in depth an environmental issue of your choosing for your midterm paper. While there are no prerequisites, a familiarity with basic concepts of sociocultural anthropology is assumed.